Only Magic
by Pyrex Shards
Summary: Based on the NA version. A scene from Amy's first night as Sailor Mercury.


"Sailor Mercury. I'm Sailor Mercury." Amy Anderson twisted that fact through her mind once again as she walked home from what once was her computer school, and the dying late winter sunset behind her. By all accounts provided to her from her mind, this was a good day. She had made a new friend, albeit a rather strange one, who turned out to be the much talked about though mysterious Sailor Moon. Amy had discovered that she was Sailor Mercury, a Sailor Scout, destine to fight for love and justice with Serena, Sailor Moon, against the evil Negaverse. Her other new friend, Luna, was just as enthusiastic about it as Serena. Though Amy believed she had a good idea why Luna was so enthusiastic, judging from the berating Serena got from Luna after Serena asked Amy for "help" with her homework. Luna was a cat, but that didn't bother Amy as much as what her mind was currently in pain over.

Amy stopped at the street corner, watching the pedestrian signal for her chance to cross. Outside she wore an expressionless face, indicator of a focused mind, a genius at work. Inside, her genius was wrought with emotion and her mind was yelling impossible!

The pedestrian signal changed to display the bright word, "walk," though Amy ignored it. Instead she turned and continued around the corner, running a slightly fast sprint. She reached the next intersection and turned yet another corner, still on the same block. To the casual observer, if observing by helicopter, it would look like some psycho kid had decided to run around the block late in the evening. Before reaching the next intersection in the recycling sequence of intersections, she turned a corner into a small area. While the rest of the block had blocked off residential housing, this small plot of land had grass, park benches, a line of evergreen trees to give it a forest touch, and a cement water fountain in the middle.

She had first come to this area shortly after arriving at her new home, after noticing it while her mother drove them to their new high-rise apartment. It had something that Amy made it a priority to check out. A beautiful two-level water fountain. She headed straight for the water fountain, sat down on it's cold, damp cement ledge, and turned slightly to let her left leg rest on the ledge. Amy looked up at the streams of water trickling down from the top of the fountain. It was not a loud fountain. Instead it possessed the soft patter of artificial rain, from the water collecting in the large top bowl, and spilling out from all around the sides into the bottom. This quality was enough for Amy to fall in love with it when she first sat down on its ledge. The stray water droplets that flew up softly hit her back and coolly dampened the cloth of her shirt. The cool droplets that hit the bare skin of her neck, arms, and leg seemed welcoming.

It beckoned her to slow down, and cry freely. Amy did just that. She lowered her head slightly, the tears from her eyes collected on the hand Amy held up to her face. Her nose and eyes both moistened, and her breathing turned to sobbing. "Impos, sible," she blurted out. How could it be? How did it happen?

Amy carefully started fighting her emotions, to let her practical side take over once more. Her mind still yelled from the depths of her brain, to the agony of her soul.

She was Amy Anderson, the scientific one. She was practical at all times, caring because life was preciously rare, and curious because the world was full of mystery that science could solve. Today, she became Sailor Mercury, the pretty genius and fearless defender of love and justice. Able to control water and ice. Able to use, magic.

Upon that word, her mind shouted impossible! once more, shaking her nerves and rattling her composure. She trembled and hunched forward slightly, staring at the ground. Her eyes were now bloodshot, and her breathing replete with sobs. Fresh new tears, water and salt, welled up in her eyes and fell off her cheeks, hitting the ground underneath her as she shut her eyes tight. The water droplets from the fountain helped a little, like an embrace by a loved one, telling her it was okay to cry.

Impossible! Magic? Impossible! Her mind raced around, shouting back and fourth at itself. Amy Anderson, the genius, using magic? Truly impossible. It didn't exist! Magic simply did not exist. Yet with a wave of her hands, like the wave of a magic wand, and a few choice words, she created a fog of ice crystals and water vapor that immobilized the opponent just enough for Sailor Moon to throw what should be a princess' head ornament at the monster. The monster itself turned into a dust that completely disappeared, in complete contradiction to the law of conservation of mass.

How could it be possible? When you die, no matter who you are, you're body simply stops all biological processes. Bacteria convert your body back into the basic building blocks of the food chain. Amy had learned this early on in her life, preferring to read science books to kill time and to escape from the pain she felt when her mother and father had another one of their fights. You don't turn to dust and then disappear. Yet Sailor Moon had done the impossible with a simple tiara. Amy's sobbing slowed; her mind experimentally brought itself together. There was some explanation, right? Some formula to it. Some math function somewhere that could explain it all? Possibly?

Amy turned around again to look at the fountain. The constant patter of the droplets hitting the surface of the water captivated her. They were so fluid in their movement; they followed the laws of reality, the laws of fluids. Water was the basic fluid. Two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen. Liquid. Like Mercury, but less dense. Amy cracked a slight smile, and giggled slightly in between sobs. But her smile faded into curiosity as she caught sight of her face, wavering in the water. The sun hadn't gone down totally, and she could still see the darkened blue of her hair and the flesh tone of her light skin in the water. It seemed to flow in harmony, as if one with the water.

Amy brought her hand down, and slowly let her index finger tickle the surface of the water slightly, while paying attention to the effect it had on the reflection of her face. She was scientific Amy Anderson, the genius who used the scientific method to quietly study the world around her. She was studying the beauty of the water as it flowed and reflected her face, while her face seemed to flow with it. She knew why the water flowed, why it reacted when she touched it, why water has a skin? Yet that didn't matter. It was beautiful the way it flowed.

Amy slowly lifted her index finger and brought her palm down onto the surface of the water, noting the intimate contact it made with the skin on her hand. Beyond her practical scientific side, something in Amy's mind stirred around a thought that she was sure the basic building blocks of it never existed before in her mind. If she could only truly become one with the water, to flow with it, to let it embrace her entire body and soul. She slowly lowered her hand into the water, and watched as it slowly curved around to hug the top of her hand, and her arm. But she was flesh, and bone, and water was just hydrogen and oxygen. Or was it?

Amy snapped her hand out of the water quickly. So much known. So much unknown. Amy looked at her wet hand, covered with a thinning and evaporating film of water. She could almost see the small molecules of hydrogen and oxygen dancing about her hand as they absorbed some of the energy from her hand and sped up, getting enough energy to escape into the air on their own, breaking the attractive bonds between their brethren and the foreign molecules in the young skin cells of Amy's hand. Why were they doing it? She slowly brought her hand up to her shirt and wiped it on the front, over her heart. She then held her hand in front of her.

Amy Anderson was Sailor Mercury; on behalf of Mercury, she fought against evil using the power of water and ice. Water? Ice? Power? She looked down at the water flowing about at the bottom of the fountain. That was it, was it? The energy between the water molecules? Was that it? How she could control water and ice? No, She thought, it's more complex than that. There was something more, something she couldn't see, but could feel.

Amy felt the attraction to the water, like it was calling her and reaching towards her. She slowly brought down her hand again, this time to just hover over the water. It was if she could feel its presence underneath her hand, beckoning for her to come closer. If only she could understand why? Was it that energy between the molecules of her hand and the water? If so, then why so strong? Amy closed her drying eyes and sighed. She clenched her hand into a fist, her index finger slightly brushed the water. She then raised her hand up to rest it on the ledge.

Too much to think about tonight, Amy. Better get home. Mom's probably worried Amy smiled slightly. As expected, this excursion had worked, the fountain seemed to rejuvenate her. And while she was still Sailor Mercury, a fact she could not reconcile with the mind of the ever scientific and curious Amy Anderson, it was something she could mull over later.

Amy hugged herself slightly as a shiver ran up her spine. In all her determination to unravel her personal mystery, she hadn't realized how cold it was getting outside. Impossible for April, but Amy had seen even more incredible things earlier. She slowly got up from the ledge of the fountain, headed towards the street, around the corner, and towards her new home.

It shall be noted that Amy didn't look back at the fountain as she got up from its ledge and headed towards her home. She was too lost in thought to consider it. The days events fresh on her mind, and a newfound, previously forgotten word, one she lost when she was very young, one lost because of her troubles. But one newfound because of her new friend, new life, and inconsequential visit to the fountain that calmed her soul.

It got cold that night. And froze around one in the morning. Ice crystals formed where water was. They were one in the same but different. Both elements of the Scout of water and ice. A spectacle for her to see, if she wasn't asleep. In the area where the fountain stood, the frigid ground sat void of movement, as the windless air hung heavy over it's almost frozen dead blades. But the fountain still flowed, for there was no ice. Only water.

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Completed: September 14th, 2001. 


End file.
